Euskal Oiloa Chicken Forum

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Pics of my EO's!

These are my EO's. The two hens, the Marraduna has whitish legs the other one pale yellow. The dark rooster has black/grey barring on chest. The white rooster has a little bit of red barring on chest with even a smaller amount of grey, they both have yellow legs. I am interested in your opinion of them. I am seriously interested in breeding this breed and want to know what I need to look out for in my stock that I am getting started with. Feel free to tell me bad points about them and the good stuff! How I can get around some of the bad points of them. Thanks

2013-10-16 21:09:41

Re: Pics of my EO's!

I love the darker rooster, looks like he has good size, nice comb, good feather colour, dark tail feathers (no white), down point is he has a grey chest. I would pair breed him to the light/honey hen.

The second rooster, seems to be a good size, nice comb but IMO too light and he has white in his tail feathers. if you pair breed him with the Millie hen hard to say what you would get, but I think it would be more Millie coloured offspring and that's fine if that's what you are after

The two hens look like nice sized birds, and this is just my 2 cents I would not breed the Millie or you will just get more Millie offspring and not what's in the SOP for the breed, if that's what your goal is. Whatever you decide they are lovely birds and you have a good start

Re: Pics of my EO's!

PD I think all four birds have some potential. Put with the right mate each has some good traits to pass along.

The first rooster definately has too much grey/black and he looks to be a bit on the small side from the photo. That said I like his head, his barring and his body shape.

The second (lighter) rooster looks a lot like one I used for breeding this spring. He was mean so we butchered him this fall, how's your boys attitude so far? I did get a some nice chicks from my boy this spring, not too white, and a few birds i am keeping as breeders for next year. Looking at your rooster, his size I like. He has less grey in his chest although still some. His comb is on the large size and he definately has a lot of white.

Your hens, the one is a definate Mille but if your roosters don't carry that trait her offspring may be solid colored. She looks like she will be a big heavy girl like my milles are although I'm not sure mine are very good layers. I like her head and her foot color.

Your second hen has good coloring although I can see some grey. She looks a bit smaller but still a good size. I like her head. Her legs look to be white but that's not hard to fix. I would guess she will be a better egg layer than the Mille but that would be something for you to monitor.

My suggestion would be try breeding them but plan to only keep your very best offspring. If it were me (and I like to keep things complicated) I would set them up in pairs in the spring, collect 2 weeks of hatching eggs from each pair, then switch the pairs wait a month and hatch 2 weeks worth of eggs from the other pair. Or you could put both hens with one rooster, hatch, wait a month and then pair the hens with the other guys and hatch.

I would also suggest getting some hatching eggs or birds from another source, preferably from another province as I think the genetics of EOs in MB are fairly narrow. I think doing that you'd be setting yourself up for seeing some real improvement in your flock with the next generation.

All just me opinion PD, thank you so much for sharing pictures of your birds with us

Re: Pics of my EO's!

poplar girl wrote:

PD I think all four birds have some potential. Put with the right mate each has some good traits to pass along.

The first rooster definately has too much grey/black and he looks to be a bit on the small side from the photo. That said I like his head, his barring and his body shape.

The second (lighter) rooster looks a lot like one I used for breeding this spring. He was mean so we butchered him this fall, how's your boys attitude so far? I did get a some nice chicks from my boy this spring, not too white, and a few birds i am keeping as breeders for next year. Looking at your rooster, his size I like. He has less grey in his chest although still some. His comb is on the large size and he definately has a lot of white.

Your hens, the one is a definate Mille but if your roosters don't carry that trait her offspring may be solid colored. She looks like she will be a big heavy girl like my milles are although I'm not sure mine are very good layers. I like her head and her foot color.

Your second hen has good coloring although I can see some grey. She looks a bit smaller but still a good size. I like her head. Her legs look to be white but that's not hard to fix. I would guess she will be a better egg layer than the Mille but that would be something for you to monitor.

My suggestion would be try breeding them but plan to only keep your very best offspring. If it were me (and I like to keep things complicated) I would set them up in pairs in the spring, collect 2 weeks of hatching eggs from each pair, then switch the pairs wait a month and hatch 2 weeks worth of eggs from the other pair. Or you could put both hens with one rooster, hatch, wait a month and then pair the hens with the other guys and hatch.

I would also suggest getting some hatching eggs or birds from another source, preferably from another province as I think the genetics of EOs in MB are fairly narrow. I think doing that you'd be setting yourself up for seeing some real improvement in your flock with the next generation.

All just me opinion PD, thank you so much for sharing pictures of your birds with us

The darker rooster is the same height as the lighter one, but the lighter one is thicker in the body and heavier. Neither one of them are mean.

So far both hens have given me an egg a day since they started to lay a few weeks ago. Yes the one's legs are white.

Thank you for your suggestions and I do plan on getting eggs from another province.

Re: Pics of my EO's!

PeaDazzled Acres wrote:

Is it harder to breed out the grey/black on them or the white?

Yes and no PD (hope you are okay with being called PD ). I would think you will get lots of chicks with way too much grey and white from these birds but you should get a few that are closer to the right color. Mate those with the best of your new birds and you should see another improvement the next year. I think I am 3 years, maybe 4 generations in and I beleive I have definately seen improvement over that time.

One of the reasons I suggest trying both hens with both Roos is its sometimes hard to predict which mating will result in the best chicks. By trying all combinations it will maximize your chances.

Re: Pics of my EO's!

poplar girl wrote:

PeaDazzled Acres wrote:

Is it harder to breed out the grey/black on them or the white?

Yes and no PD (hope you are okay with being called PD ). I would think you will get lots of chicks with way too much grey and white from these birds but you should get a few that are closer to the right color. Mate those with the best of your new birds and you should see another improvement the next year. I think I am 3 years, maybe 4 generations in and I beleive I have definately seen improvement over that time.

One of the reasons I suggest trying both hens with both Roos is its sometimes hard to predict which mating will result in the best chicks. By trying all combinations it will maximize your chances.

Re: Pics of my EO's!

PD,

What PG said!

I've found this year that the secret to really improving my flock was to hatch a lot, and really keep only the very best. I had some birds that were good for type, but bad for colour (and vice versa). I bred one clavell combed roo because I liked his other features. I hatched out about 120 chicks, sold most of the girls for layers (really wrong colours), sold some for breeders, and kept the very best 9 to grow out and see how they mature. I was really surprised with who laid what, so like PG said, sometimes it's the combination of genetics from two birds that unexpectedly gives you the great results!

Oh, and just wanted to add a slightly different observation regarding your millie. I like her body (what a great poser she is!! hopefully she will throw the "show pose" to her offspring!), and she keeps her wings tucked up really nicely. Her head is a bit square - your other girl has the longer head. From the pic angles it's a bit hard to tell about your boys, but they both look to have "rectangle" heads to me, so hopefully will throw that to their offspring.

Have fun with your project! And looking forward to seeing the results next year!

When all else fails, go spend time with your chickens.

Pens are currently filled with Red Cuckoo (Marraduna) and Red Basque (Gorria) breeders, Spitz, and Seramas.